How To Make Money While Traveling

The most frequent question I get asked is how I can afford my lifestyle. People are also always looking at how to make money while traveling. Or how to make enough money to help them pay for their travels.

Travelling is mostly considered a luxury expense, something you save up for, or only do once in a while. On the contrary, as a digital nomad, you are free to choose wherever you work from and where you live.

So, for me, it has become plain logic to choose destinations that also offer some sort of value for the time that I don’t work on my laptop. People who have followed my blog, know by now that my perfect place is at the ocean and the beach – this means paradise to me.

But there are obviously many more ways to design your lifestyle as a digital nomad. I know a lot of people who prefer the city or they stay in one place for a long time and have a second base somewhere else.

Most Obvious Ways To Make Money While Traveling

If you are looking at how you can travel and make money at the same time, you are not alone. Many people dream of becoming digital nomads, the thought of working while traveling appeals to the masses, it seems.

There are two ultimate ways to travel and make money at the same time:

Use your travelling to make money

Continue working while you travel

How To Travel For A Living

If you are able to leverage your skills in a way that allows you to travel, this is a great way to go. Getting paid to travel is an amazing way to use your talents.

Some of the professions that will allow you to make money travelling are:

Photographers – travel guides and websites are often in search of top quality images of the places they write about.

Travel guide researchers – while not as glamorous as it sounds, researching a place for a travel guide will allow you to see the most of any destination.

Flight attendants – the oldest and most stable way to see the world. Although a tiring profession, and not as flexible as other traveling jobs.

Cruise ship employees – Cruise ships have many different positions for you to apply for, from waitressing to beauty therapists.

Au pairs – if you’re good with kids, living with a family as their children’s caregiver will give you a safe and fun way to see the world.

English teachers – spend some time in a foreign country teaching the locals English.

If you’re really not sure how to travel and work, the above-mentioned jobs will give you a great stepping stone. They do, however, require you to report to a boss, and may limit your choices on where you travel to, as well as how long you stay.

If you want more freedom, you’ll want to look at remote and freelancing jobs.

How To Work While Traveling

If you are lucky enough to secure a job that allows you to work while traveling, it is a lot easier to work from wherever you are. Being able to travel and work gives you almost complete control over where you go and how long you stay.

The list of remote jobs is longer than you’d think, some of the most popular jobs include:

Content writer – write content for online businesses and websites.

Photographer – work as a freelance photographer, selling your images to websites and magazines.

Virtual Assistant – as a virtual assistant you can work anywhere you find good wifi.

Web designer/developer – design or develop websites as a freelancer from wherever you find yourself.

Ghostwriter – ghostwriting is a great option if you have a talent for writing, and you’ll most likely not need to sit too still to do it.

Blogger – finding a way to monetize your own blog, especially a travel blog, gives you the freedom to travel and blog in your own time.

Influencer – if you can wrangle together a fair amount of social media followers, you can use your influence to keep you going financially while on the road.

Editor/Proofreader – as long as your English (or whichever language you decide to work in) is A grade, you can offer editing and proofreading services to writers and bloggers.

Social Media Marketer – use your social media skills to help businesses reach their audience in the best ways.

Any of these jobs will allow you to grab your laptop, book your plane tickets and head off to a destination office space. Whether you’re wanting to work while travelling across Europe or spend your office hours on a beach in Spain, you can work knowing you’re not losing out on any paychecks.

Of course, digital nomadism does not necessarily have to be combined with travelling – but in my opinion, it’s a lot more fun to do so! Check out the following guest post to learn about a few options to choose from if you haven’t started freelancing or earn money online and still want to know how to make money and travel…

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How to Make Money Traveling as a Digital Nomad

Guest post by Jenny Holt:

The first time I took a year off, before college, travelling and working meant finding an array of bar and waitressing jobs across America to get myself from Georgia to Hawaii, then on to Australia, and then Southeast Asia.

The last leg of the trip was trickiest workwise but luckily there was a lot of demand for teaching English. As I found out on a second trip a few years ago, there are a lot more options now for the digital nomad – you can earn from your hotel from your AirBnB or in a cafe with a WiFi connection.

How To Travel And Make Money

There are hundreds of ways to earn money online while travelling. The simplest of those is the ubiquitous travel blog. It is also a great way to keep in touch with friends and relatives back home, as well as those you meet on the journey.

These take time to seed and gain a following, but by using a weekly email blast, affiliate marketing, and advertising, you can begin to earn some money toward your travels.

The best part is that if the blog is your main business any expenses might be tax deductible. Affiliate marketing income can be gained from airlines, hotel sites, and travel rating sites among others.

How to Balance Work and Travel

While moving from one place to another, I often found myself losing work time. A tour across Europe meant using a lot of buses, coaches and especially trains.

This is great for the environment, but a bit more boring than driving or cycling somewhere, so like many commuters I turned to work during the travel times.

An easy way to fill in the time is to do micro jobs such as taking surveys, posting reviews, partaking in fora and moderate forums, or even delivering packages en route.

In addition to these tasks that many sites pay people to do, you can enter contests and sweepstakes as well. Some people who enter many of these are rather successful over a year, but there’s naturally no guarantee of a payout.

Make Money While Traveling – Teach a Skill

Yes, it is possible to continue to teach English or other skills while travelling. The wonders of the Internet and communication software like Skype means you can freelance teach people anywhere, so as long as both of you have a secure Internet connection.

Teaching online is not your only option as a freelancer. In addition to tutoring students, you can become a virtual assistant or be a call centre customer service Rep.

A Simple Answer to Making Money While Traveling

There are tons of companies who will pay you to participate in their surveys. Most surveys don’t take much time and simply ask you for your opinion or expertise.

Those questionnaires are mostly multiple choice questions which will earn you either points that you accumulate and get paid out later or some pay you per survey. It’s an easy way to do on the side.

What are your ways of making money while travelling as a digital nomad? Do you work as a freelancer? Let us know, so we can get inspired and follow your example!

About the author of our guest post:

Jenny Holt is a freelance writer and mother of two. She loves nothing more than getting away from it and taking her pet Labrador Bruce for long walks, something she can do a lot more now she’s left the corporate world behind.

NOT DONE READING YET?

Check out this post to read which gadgets I use to stay organised as a traveller and digital nomad.

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About Julia

Julia is the founder and chief editor of Jey Jetter, a site that showcases the option of working remotely and travel as much as you like. Julia is a former PR/marketing consultant who turned into a remote working social media manager, travel writer and public speaker living location independently since 2011. She has been to 86 countries on all 6 continents and lived in several different countries for more than six months. Her laptop is her office and the label 'digital nomad' fits best to describe her lifestyle. On this site, she writes about personal freedom, remote work and her passion for travelling.

Disclosure: Jey Jetter Digital Nomad & Travel Blog is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. Please see my Editorial Policy for more details.

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We are the founders of Jey Jetter, a site for everyone interested in working remotely and travelling endlessly. Here, we share our knowledge about long-term travel, personal freedom and location independence. Follow along to become a successful digital nomad yourself! Let's talk biz…

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